Grant Funding for Feasibility Assessment

A grant from the United States Forest Service (USFS) and High Sierra Resource Conservation and Development Council funded an initial Feasibility Assessment (PDF) to evaluate existing technologies that produce electrical energy and heat from biomass materials with air pollutant emissions low enough to be able to be permitted and other attributes that would allow the technology to be utilized in eastern Placer County. The assessment considered the possibility of combined heat and electrical power (CHP) generating technology, utilizing locally available fuels (i.e. woody biomass fuels easily accessible and obtainable with no new access road construction in the forest) that would otherwise be wasted resources. Biomass technologies, both direct combustion and gasification systems were evaluated, with the goal of being environmentally compatible and allowable in eastern Placer County. Results were very positive and led to detailed studies for a biomass energy facility.